Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-09-08
NOT A FAIR PICTURE

NOT a FAIR FUTURE.
The Chicago Inter-Ocean is one OF the
most rabid radical papers on the CONT
nent, and doubtless its correspondents
are selected with view to carrying out
the peculiar prediction OF that journal.
one OF these correspondents, soiourning
at White Sulphur Springs, Va, in writing
to his paper gives, among other things, 8
sketch OF the labor problem of the south,
wherein the colored lsborer is pictured IN
no very fattering colors. Pausing q mo-
ment in his search for health
and interesting items, the correspondent
makes q discovery, and proceeds to
teach Us an objective lesson. He says
Behind the spring the labor problem
OF the south lies asleep in the sunshine
Oh the grass. He is in several kinds of
rags, but he is perfectly happy. He would
be equally happy without any clothing st
all. All he asks of life is to be allowed
TO wear rags, be idle, and have enough
food of shy kind to keep soul and body
together. He will not work any oftener
| or any longer than he car help. He has
no sense Of moral obligation and will not
pay his bills when he gets money. This
Of course refers 10 the lowest negro class,
the great mass of former slaves aud their
progeny. He cannot read or write, and
would be too lazy to do either If he knew
how. Every southerner here says that the
south would be magnificent country If
it had fair quality Of labor, but that no
enterprise can be relied on with negro
LABOR 70 carry it out. a well known
| Virginian states that he has thousand
acres of the finest land in the state, which
he has offered to both of his sons, but
neither will tske it, because with the
kind OF labor available it cannot be
probably conducted. There are but q
few thousand more whites III Virginia
at the present time than negroes, and the
latter are increasing the more rapidly.
The negro problem is q sinister one to
the southerners, and there seems to be
10 solution for it. Perhaps it is iudg-
ment."
The tas5 sentence is correct. It is
judgment. 1t is the Judgment of the
purblind northern sensationellst who bids
adieu to facts as soon as he.comes south
snd strains his ingenuity in rearing tenn
pies OF fiction or in coursing over the
| fields of romance. There may have been
and doubtless WAS e cOlOred man asleep
in the grass beyond the spring. They
can be found at any time or at any place
where considerable numbers of white
people assemble. II would require no
extensive search, however, to tind close
By him, white man "a5leep in the sun
shine on the grass" and, il that white
msn wss watched on election day, he
would be found voting the Republican
ticket and commenting on the lack of in
dustry of the south. The colored man
"asleep in the grass" may be found il
the southern states, but he is the
exception. All colored men do not pass
their time in such blissful insoucianCe.
The large body of the colored leborers
as we'll as the white laborers are engaged
in useful, honorable and productive in
dustries, and are doing more for the ad
vancement and development of the coun-
| try than those correspondents whose
claims to probity consist in plausible
Misrepresentation. The labor problem
of the south is not confined to those
colored men who hang around watering
places. There are perhaps three white
laborers in the south to one black. And
the eolored men have not degenerated
into berberous idleness, as the Inter Ocean
would have people believe. We find them
owning property, paying taxes, working
in the mills, mines and factories; on the
farms, in the workshops and on the rail-
roads. They can be found not
only in the walks Of labor, but
in the pulpit, in the sanctum,
on the rostrum and in the school
room. Colored men are doctors, lawyers,
teachers, preachers, and down through
every grade OF service to the lowest.
They do not lie in the grass; they are
made TO do so only by some one else lying
il print. They are producing corn, cot
ton, sugar and rice, and assisting in
building up the country and advancing It's
material prosperity. Their chief fault
lies in a perverse adherence to
the Republican party, and for this
southern men vote against them. Ia the
field of labor they are entitled TO all THE
GAZETTE has seid about them.